Friday, November 28, 2014

Advent in Our Home

During this time of darkness, Advent is a journey that leads us toward the light. It is a time of peacefulness, and calm, and for our family, a time to share our love and light with others. Our Advent gnome will make his appearance on Sunday morning, bringing with him a little scroll. Reece will no doubt be a little excited, and with anticipation will open the scroll and ask me to read it. I will share the gnomes little message with him, and we will then determine how best to incorporate that wish into our day.

Of course, this is all well planned out by me, but Reece doesn't know that. The first scroll tells us to cut our tree, and decorate it, and to set up our Advent wreath/spiral. Over the coming weeks there are scrolls with activities for us to do...visit the One of A Kind Show, go on a family hike, enjoy dinner with friends, take an evening drive to see the holiday lights. Some scrolls include crafting fun...making wool angels, creating a beeswax star garland, threading button snowflakes, hand stitching sun ornaments for Winter Solstice. Other scrolls invite us to share our light with others...buying food for Christmas hampers, giving a gift to those in need through World Vision, making cookies to share. Each day a scroll for an excited little boy to open as we move through the season.

These are all simple things, yet they are full of love and light, and I think perfect for this quiet season of Advent.

47 comments:

Thanks for sharing your Advent ideas! We, too, our excited to begin this magical time of the year as we move toward Solstice and Christmas -- and a one year birthday for a little brother born-at-home last Christmas Day! Best wishes to you!

aw, so sweet. love the idea of teeny gnome scrolls.we'll be doing an advent-TYPE of calendar countdown to the solstice. i bought a non-religious calendar, but next year i plan to have made one myself. i might steal your scroll idea to add some personal messages.

This is so similar to what we were planning this year but you've just gone ahead and made it more inspiring. We are building an "experience" based advent calendar, but the idea of putting in charity work, experiences that will build compassion, that is just wonderful! Thank you for taking our idea to the next level. :-)

You are such an inspiration Kim! I was just thinking about something similar for me and my husband (these kind of things are not just for children right??),to share together the path of Advent in a meaningful way.Thanks for sharing!

Such a lovely tradition. I've been thinking a lot about advent and how best to celebrate. I also love how you seem to almost welcome the darkness like it's an old friend. I sense peace and warmth in your writings as you travel through this season towards the light. Thank you for sharing.

I do welcome the darkness, because without it I wouldn't see the light. I think at times we need to move into the darkness so we can truly appreciate the light, and when we do, we are better able to share it, and spread it to others.

Kim, what a wonderful idea! We have quite a bit built up around Advent in our home, but I've always wanted to do some sort of daily gift opening. Except we don't need anymore stuff in our house! This is such a wonderful alternative and I am yet again so happy yo have found your blog. (Lu and I even just started infusing olive oil for our first ever batch of salve!)

Now the question will be if I can implement something like this in our house in the next 24 hours! Well if not, then next year!

Thank you Coco, so happy to hear you like it. Like you, we didn't need more stuff when we started this tradition two years ago, and this seemed to fit perfectly with our desire to keep things simple, but fun. Reece loves it, and it adds a special touch to the season without going overboard.

Yay for infusing, you will be whipping up salves in no time.

There is always next year, but I bet you could do it. You could actually do it nightly, as the gnome only delivers one scroll a day :) But if not, you are right, there is always next year.

And we have made it work, so far, doing it nightly as you mentioned. We called up the higher authority of the "House Elves" in our home a few years ago. It really helps with both bringing magic to festivals (they are often the bringing of little gifts) and also for moments of loving discipline (like gentle reminders that we don't steal things from our friends at school and bring them home to hide under the bed!) So, the House Elves are bringing our scroll everyday. This will work so well for us as there is always so much to do in preparation for Christmas and I have struggled how to include the children up until now. I'm thinking of basing each week within the minerals, plants, animals, and humans. So, collecting crystals for the wreath was today. Third week will be hanging new bird feeders. Again, thanks so much. This is a wonderful gift for us!

Love this! Since last year, we have created a new Advent tradition; instead of buying things and offering small surprises to the kids only, we've created a paper Advent calendar made of origami boxes and each one of us is responsible for making a little surprise for one of the others, each day. Today I had a clementine with I love you written on it by my daughter, so sweet! As you say, I find it important to keep old traditions and adapt them to what sounds right to us.WIshing you a happy day!

This is so simple, sweet, and exactly what I wish I would have thought of before I purchased a $30 canvas with pockets that counts down the days till Christmas. Thank you for sharing this. I know I'm a year late to see but glad I can still view this post!

Thanks for stopping by Crystal, and glad you like the Advent gnome. He has made an appearance this year too, you can see the post here http://www.motheringwithmindfulness.com/2015/12/the-advent-gnome.html

Welcome to Mothering with Mindfulness. My name is Kim, Waldorf inspired homeschooling mama to one, writer, nature lover, dreamer, and lover of all things handmade. This is my space. A space to share with you my journey through motherhood, as I walk along the path of simple, mindful living. I invite you to join me as I learn and grow.